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June 24, 2013

More than 700,000 people now subscribing to Creative Cloud

Customer adoption is accelerating, according to this press release. It took roughly 10 months to reach 500,000, and this is an increase of more than 200,000 in the last three months alone. Thanks to everyone who’s come aboard!

#1 are not only possible and probable, but is now a reality (hat’s off to Kark Gibson, Jody Rodgers, etc.).

#2 has never been a reality and thus sets back Enterprise IT Departments by many unnecessary hours of time/effort (1hr x 1,000 worstations…each needs to be “touched” since no zero-touch removal script [ever] exists/existed).

That Adobe has embraced a subscription model, well, it’s like they say — “Hey, I just make the sausages”.

According to Adobe´s own documents presented at the recent Adobe conference a couple of months ago, show that Adobe has about 8 million unique users. 700,000 CC users is about 8.75% of the total. The 700,000 figure, Adobe is bloating so much about doesn´t look that good now anymore, does it?

Andrew Smith — 4:19 AM on June 25, 2013

In addition to the comment by jlua, I would like to humbly point out that this feat would only be worth celebrating if us users still had a CHOICE.

It’s not impressive when the cattle are merely being corralled in to another pen.

While I agree in principal (and will be supporting it), I disagree with the term of 5 years as the bench mark for program retention. For the returning customer who needs more than 2 programs and less than all of them, this is huge overpayment in comparison with past costs. I am more than a little miffed that segments of the customer base with needs similar to mine have been totally neglected in this model. I am pro CHOICE, pro perpetual license, and actually pro CC if both the price and exit strategy were reasonable.

I haven’t even bothered to upgrade to LR5 because I am just not certain of the logic of giving a company any more of my money when they are not interested in my business.

I’m not even going to upgrade Lightroom from 4 to 5 at this time. I’m grouchy. No money to Adobe at this time — they’ve lost my trust. I will use CS6 until I die or can no longer use it. I will have an open mind for non-Adobe products to use in my workflow.

jlua — 12:20 PM on June 25, 2013

Judy, it is the same with me. I have been using Photoshop since version 3 (not CS3), and Lightroom since it first came out, and I was always the first one to religiously upgrade (I was even beta tester three times for PS). Now, I won´t even upgrade my Lightroom. Like you, I don´t want to give Adobe my money now.

metai — 2:29 PM on June 25, 2013

According to Adobe’s May 2013 IR Presentation, CS6 suites were at 4.1 Million unique users. Given that CS6 launched in May 2012 and that number is for Q1 2013, the 4.1M figure is bound to be the number of CS6 suites sold in nine or ten months. I spare you the rest of the math, just picture me doing the slow clap.

yeah….I am guessing that the majority of the 700K is coming mostly from both new customers (who wouldn’t or couldn’t pay the going rate for some version of the whole package), and those who missed the upgrade window and are now jumping on the cloud because the monthly pay plan seems less than the full upgrade price for CS6. The other 3.9+ million are sitting on the fence….

jlua — 3:39 PM on June 25, 2013

metai: As I recall, the total number of users, counting both suite users, and single-or-multiple product users was around 8 million. So the 700K CS number would look even worse.

metai — 3:56 PM on June 25, 2013

You are right as far as one has to factor in the CS6 “Point Products” in the same timeframe, which amount to 1.5 Million. So we’re talking 5.6 Million sold CS6 products in somewhere around nine months vs. 200.000 CC subscriptions in three months.

[Your math is off, but I’m on my phone (at the DMV!) and don’t have access to better numbers. I’ll see what I can find. –J.]

metai: Yes, you are right. There are several ways to read the chart on page 14 of that presentation. One other way to read that chart could be to read that the total number of all users of any version of both Adobe suites and of Adobe Point Products is 8.4+4.4=12.8 Million. And of those 12.8M, apparently only 700K have chosen to sign up to CC, so far. And I am sure there could be other possible readings.

metai — 4:55 PM on June 25, 2013

John, might I humbly suggest you answer to comments in a comment of its own? It is highly unconventional to insert content into someone else’s comment, and I have to quote you if I want to react to you in the same way you did to me.

“[Your math is off, but I’m on my phone (at the DMV!) and don’t have access to better numbers. I’ll see what I can find. –J.]”

In general yes, but not in this case. That’s how John does it on his Blog. It’s nothing new here, IIRC he wrote in a post a few years back that it makes it easier for him to respond to things quickly/directly.

Anyway, if Adobe is citing this 700,000 figure as a showing of how popular CC is I think that’s a false conclusion at best. It’s the ONLY choice if you want a new version of the software you’ve been using for decades. That’s like interpreting Henry Ford’s comment “People can have the Model T in any color – so long as it’s black.” as something more spinworthy like “black now the choice of 100% of our Model T customers!” Rub a little salt in the wound will ya?

Adobe can’t use those numbers to show popularity, just the adoption rate. Those two things are not one and the same here, for a myriad of reasons littered throughout this blog and elsewhere online.

It’s lovely if the CC users enjoy their rental. Really. Adobe has the right to publicize what they see as a rousing success, though I don’t see it that way. It is a rousing success, right? You’re wildly happy with how this has gone down, right? But to the rest of us it’s just another middle finger–even if it’s not meant that way. To use another analogy, it’s like Adobe just divorced us after 20 years of marriage and is now bragging about it’s prowess with it’s pretty new girlfriend/boyfriend half our age that does the dirty stuff we won’t. We get it, you’ve moved on and don’t want us now, stop rubbing our noses in it.

Claudius — 12:04 PM on July 01, 2013

It’s the way John answers comments on his blog. Personally, i like the way he does it. On many occasions, answering “right there” has been useful. In lengthy discussions such as this, i sometimes wish i’d have the same possibilities, commenting “on the spot”.

John marks the insertions very clear each time, so that there’s no confusion between the original poster and the comment’s comment. As I said: i personally like it. I don’t think he intended to offend you.

[Indeed. There’s no perfect solution, and I don’t want to bombard people by adding a comment for each response I want to offer. –J.]

i will use my version of CS6 until it dies and i am not upgrading to LR5

DanielSw — 4:24 AM on June 26, 2013

Adobe has declared in its official press release that customer adoption of its CC subscription model is ACCELERATING. That’s a verifiable rising FACTUAL statistic. Such FACTS mean far more to a company and to sane, rational individuals than OPINIONS such as those of you complainers. As much as some of you would have your opinions outweigh the facts, it seems highly unlikely that that will happen.

Yep, I’m a complainer all right, and that’s my right. I don’t know why those of you who like CC seem so intent on insulting anyone who doesn’t. Makes me wonder…

I don’t know that we can interpret those “facts” that were presented to stockholders. I won’t comment on whether it is accelerating or not. I do know that no one I know is likely to join CC.

Over the years I’ve given Adobe thousands of dollars for a number of products. It is we their customers who got them where they are, yet they know what we want and need.

I will not rent their software. And the more insults that come my way, the less likely I will be to ever buy anything, even Lightroom upgrades.

They may be appealing to people who have nothing in the game — new users. But we who have already given them thousands don’t like a significant price increase even if you consider enforced upgrades. By that I mean I would pay more by renting than even if I bought all upgrades in the past. Also, when and if I can’t or don’t want to afford the rent any more, I get nothing. Oh, yes, I can go back to my CS6 and not be able to read my new PSDs properly.

Judy

metai — 11:01 AM on June 26, 2013

Noone here is disputing that the subscription model is accelerating. What the heck are you going on about?

Razor — 5:56 AM on June 28, 2013

Yep 700,000 and 20 million to go… grab a Snickers it’s gonna be awhile.

On “Accelerating”:
If you just started a new product, there’s pretty much no other way than “up”. (If you just got your third customer, you could write a press-release “50% more customers!”.)

On “Factual Statistic”:
Compared to a few million licenses before CC, the accelerating (but much lower) sales of subscriptions still don’t look too well (yet?).

Adobe has seen this coming, and they also mentioned it in one of their presentations. Time will tell if they were right with their projections.

To summarize: Yes, it’s rising. No, it’s not proving any of the “complainers” wrong. Even IF it got more successful than the suites, it will still not prove the complainers wrong. The only thing it WOULD prove wrong is the complainers’ relevance to Adobe’s bottom line.

Landon — 11:09 AM on July 01, 2013

DanielSW, I think the problem is the suggestion that an acceleration of uptake is a sign of the popularity of the CC plan, especially by traditional users. I don’t think those numbers back up that idea without a lot more detail about who is buying and why, and a comparison to the uptake rate of previous versions. Even then, this is something of a forced march for people stuck in the Adobe ecosystem–so popularity doesn’t factor in with many users–it’s forced.

Unfortunately, CC’s problems are largely about it’s business model and not about the software itself. Adobe can’t change the conversation about that. And frankly, that’s all on them. CC could be the best thing since sliced bread, but it’s not going to matter because as a customer I no longer feel I can trust/like/root-for Adobe because of the way we’ve been treated. And worse, I don’t know how that can be changed given their entrenched position.

And for those keeping track of the all the fun lately–or just in case you haven’t felt screwed enough–Quark just put another bullet in their foot by ending their long-standing upgrade policy for what looks like a one-or-two version-back rule–at a time when they could have cleaned up with Adobe refugees looking to update old Quark software. This little bit is my favorite “Due to the necessary modernisation that has been undertaken for QuarkXPress 10, it will only support opening documents saved in QuarkXPress 7 and above. If you want to ensure that you have a route to opening legacy QuarkXPress files on modern operating systems and a way to migrate files to version 10, you will need at least one license of QuarkXPress 9.” Ah, thanks for the reminder of good times Quark. So… that’s fun. CC will keep us from having our Adobe software to open our docs if we quit a subscription, and Quark will do it just because its just inconvenient for them to parse an old file. Classic. I should own stock in Vaseline.

Razor — 5:49 AM on June 28, 2013

I’ve been a professional Adobe user for 20+ years and have been running my own corporate business for going on 6 years. In no way will I be upgrading any licenses to CC. The primary issue is not being able to perpetually access source files (Intellectual Property) on exit. Until Adobe solves the legal issue of IP, CS6 will suffice for awhile. Thanks to Adobe’s backstabbing greed and legal idiocy I’m now looking into swapping Premiere for Media Composer 7 and swapping Audition for Pro Tools 11. There are about 20 million users Adobe has yet to capture into CC, so don’t let the factional 700,000 marketing tactic fool you.